Scent of a man

Our hearts go out to all those men who have been pumping iron daily in the desperate hope that they will end up looking like Vin Diesel or Jean-Claude van Damme. And to those trying to copy that ‘make my day’ swagger a la Clint Eastwood. The reason for this sympathy is the findings in a study done by St. Andrews University that says the Aamir Khans and the Keanu Reeves of the world rank much higher on women’s most-wanted list than the Salman Khans and the Bruce Willis. The study adds that women see macho-looking men as less faithful, less warm and potentially poorer fathers. Men with more feminine features and a healthy visage are judged as being a better bet for a long-term relationship. The team asked nearly 100 women to make snap judgments after viewing images that had been digitally enhanced to emphasise masculine or feminine features.

An interesting bit of news, we admit, but probably not very new considering men got a scent of this much earlier than we guessed. So they found out market-savvy tags like metrosexuals, retrosexuals and ubersexual to describe their finer qualities. And, the movie world, the ultimate barometer of new social trends, was fast to cotton on and introduce ‘feminine’ male actors.

Now these frills and femininity is all very fine. But how many women want competition from their men? How many heroes do you find in say, Mills and Boon, who are busy getting in touch with their feminine side. No, we still fall for tall, dark and handsome. So Clint Eastwood has nothing to fear, he’ll still give the pretty boys a run for their money. The mystique of uncaring bad boys still holds great fascination for women. And no one is likely to muscle in on that for a while.